Trafigura Powerbroker’s Jail Sentence Is a Watershed for Traders

When a 22-year-old Mike Wainwright joined Trafigura as an accounts assistant in 1996, the quietly spoken Englishman could hardly have imagined that three decades later he’d be making history.

By the time he left the company last year, Wainwright was one of the most powerful people in the secretive business of buying, selling and shipping commodities around the world. Now, he’s just became the first senior executive at a major commodity trading house to be convicted of corruption.

It’s a startling statistic in an industry that’s had a reputation for bribes and brown envelopes since the days of its infamous pioneer Marc ...